FIFA says it will remain 'neutral' on issue of six Israeli football teams located in illegal West Bank settlements.

International football's governing body has once again postponed a decision to take action on the future of six Israeli football clubs based in illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

FIFA representatives met in Kolkata, India, on Friday and cited the "exceptional complexity and sensitivity" and "political" nature of the subject.

The Palestine Football Association (PFA) has been campaigning FIFA to force the relocation of the clubs since 2015. The clubs are located in settlements considered illegal under international law, which is in breach of FIFA statutes.

PFA President Jibril Rajoub previously said that he was not seeking the expulsion of Israel from FIFA, but rather for Israel to abide by international regulations.

"We want to stop all football and football-related activity run by the Israeli federation in Palestine's internationally recognised territories," he said.

Speaking about Friday's lack of action, Sarah Leah Whitson, the executive director of the Middle East division of Human Rights Watch, said: "There should be nothing political about deciding to follow one's own rules.

"With today's decision, FIFA has decided to continue sponsoring games in illegal Israeli settlements, in contempt of international law and contrary to its professed commitment to human rights."

In a statement, Fadi Quran, a senior campaigner in Palestine for the civic organisation, Avaaz, said that FIFA's failure to act means that thousands of Palestinian children are being "robbed of the chance to play the game they love on land that's theirs."

"If FIFA won't do its job and won't respect its own statutes and international law, then the courts will force it to do so," he said.

FIFA has postponed the issue at least four times in the past two years, forcing the PFA to take the matter to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in May.

A special monitoring committee, appointed by FIFA in 2015, was tasked to resolve the issue within a year - but the mandate was extended in October 2016, January 2017 and March 2017.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino has promised in the past to take action. At a previous meeting in the Bahraini capital Manama in May 2017, he said: "We will take responsibility, and we will take a decision on this matter."

However, the FIFA Congress in Manama approved a proposal by Infantino to again defer a decision on the issue.

The six teams are based in the Jewish settlements of Kiryat Arba, Givat Zeev, Maale Adumim, Ariel, Oranit and Tomer.